Luke* was persistent; I’d give him that. I was tolerant; I’d give me that.  In the world of Luke, there seemed to be only three goals. One was to convince me that he was not too young for me and indeed very mature for his age.  Another was to convince me that he was really and truly so very much in love with me. And, of course, the third was to repeat just how much he was unlike his other Nigerian countrymen.  By email, by IM and by phone, he would let me know that he wasn’t a liar or a con-artist like any of the others.

He would send me emails in which he would mock my treatment of him; he began calling me “the old lady”.  He would assure me that there was nothing deceitful in anything he said to me. And, that it was my entire right to believe or not believe anything he said. All he knew was that he was speaking out and saying what his heart was going through.  He knew what he was feeling inside of him and no one could describe it better than he.  He would sign such emails “kisses from the Nigerian liar”.

When I got busy and went missing for some time, he would send me emails to let me know he was in severe pain.  He would say I had managed to get him in such a tight corner because he was so very much in love with me.  Then he would muse how strange it was that he had fallen so madly in love with me. He’d beg me to save him from his situation and pray that he soon found a remedy for his fortunate pain.

Now, after all of Luke’s protests about being a very honest Nigerian and human being, you can imagine my surprise at what happened next.  One day, I woke up to an email asking for my immediate attention.  He had something very urgent to discuss with me.  I took my time responding- since I thought I was in for some of his usual “life is misery without you” tirade.

It was a very anxious Luke that greeted me on IM when we did get to talking on this matter of urgency.  He was approaching a new semester at University and found himself short on funds.  He knew that I understood the importance of an education to a youngster (suddenly, he didn’t mind the youngster tag).  He was wondering if I could send him a certain amount of United States dollars.  Now, if I went online to do the calculations, it might seem a lot in his currency. But things were expensive over here and I should try to help him out as soon as possible. I should send the money under his father’s name- his father was a professor at the University he attended.

I considered the possibility that the young man had true trouble funding his education. Then, I wondered about his father and this notion of sending money under his name.  Luke assured me this was no scam and that professors don’t make what I think they do in his home country. He was really in a bind and not trying to scam me; did I really want him to be kicked out of University?

I gave the situation a second look-over and decided that this was very much a scam. I communicated my decision to Luke via email.  My email brought out a change in Luke. Gone was the soft-spoken, corny and sweet young man.  I now had on my hands a vicious F’word spewing monster….

* Real name has been altered.

 Coming Next Saturday: SWEET NO MORE

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